As animals go, we’re okay too

I’m a lucky man, and many people have brought this fact to my attention. “You’re a lucky guy,” I’m told, sometimes by people I’ve just met. “You’re lucky to be able to spend so much time with animals.” Exactly right.

“I’ve often thought of doing something with animals, something like you do,” they add. But then they ruin it, assuming what they do not know. “Because, like you, I think that animals are so much better than people.” Hmmm.

Let’s be clear about this. I love animals. I love to be around them. And while I’ve rarely met an animal I didn’t like, and while I can’t necessarily claim the same track record regarding people, I am no misanthrope. I like human beings, I really do. Some of my very favorite animals happen to be human. Actually, as animals go, I think we’re pretty terrific.

Unfortunately, I often get a glimpse of the worst side of our species. It may be true that the people who abuse animals were once themselves abused, but it’s hard to care about their own pain when confronted with the pain they cause. I’m talking about the people who have devolved into finding entertainment in sticking firecrackers in the rectums of cats, or betting on the outcome of two dogs goaded into a fight to the death.

Yes, these people are most assuredly victims themselves, survivors of some hell. But their current actions can not be justified even against the most bleak and depressing of childhoods. The animals are indeed much better than these people.

But I also see the very best of people, including the wonderful people that work and volunteer for this organization and the hundreds like it around the nation. I’m talking about the people who put themselves at personal risk to rescue a frightened dog loose on the freeway, or who give hours of their time to wash birds caught in an oil spill, or nurse an abandoned baby kitten who may survive and maybe won’t but surely wouldn’t have had a chance if not for the care and time of those wonderful human beings.

I like people. Honest. There are some of us who I really love. It’s true that, as a group, I like us best when we’re young and more like dogs and cats: you just don’t find a baby human who isn’t beautiful, who doesn’t show such promise, who you don’t want to hold and protect. A baby human is just as great as any other animal.

The trouble is that some of us just go wrong as we grow up. But that’s not reason to give up on the whole species. Well, at least not every day. I say be kind to all animals, even us. Hopefully, we’ll deserve it.